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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October. Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.

World Circular Textiles Day

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Business case

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Scalability

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Providing goods on the Internet, through mail order, or television, or providing goods in stores, including apparel, electronics, furniture, food and drug, etc.

Retail

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within the same industry

Closed loop collection

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

Designing products of multiple parts that can be easily exchanged

Design for modularity

Designing products to remove any barriers to recycling and enable easy recyclability

Design for recycling

Designing products to be reused for the same or different purposes in multiple lifecycles

Design for reuse

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

VISION:
Raw materials are renewable, recyclable and safe, kept in continual circulation.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…the raw materials that are used to make things are sourced from existing products and regenerative agriculture, via carbon negative and climate neutral processes. Biodegradable raw materials are used for products with biodegradable end routes. Toxic chemicals have been washed out of the global materials pool, disposed of safely and replaced with beneficial alternatives. Virgin fibres made from fossil fuels have been banned, while secondary synthetic fibres, derived from what was already in the system, are kept in constant circulation as a resource. Circularity accounting methods, built on science-based metrics, help to manage a balanced system of resources, across all industries, and in line with the planet’s environmental limits.

Raw Materials and Planetary Boundaries

VISION:
Products and services are designed for multiple use and material value retention, with maximum positive impact.

DETAIL: 
Imagine a time when…products flow via optimal collection and distribution streams into reusable and repairable product platforms. Reuse and access models are dominant, and products are designed for multiple recirculation before biodegrading (if designed to do so), or being broken down into reusable raw materials for production. People only consume what they need. Production and consumption wastes have been fully eliminated and multifunctional, season-less and timeless fashions are the norm, yet still fulfil our human need for expression and creativity without constraint. All business models, organisations, governments and citizens play a role in maintaining a healthy, functioning circular ecosystem.

Products and Services

Designing products with a single material type to more easily recycle them after use

Design for recycling - mono-materials

Extraction and reuse of parts from end-of-life products for use in new products

Part recovery

Decentralised services that rely on the power of the crowd or the community

Crowd-based services

Enacting measures that optimise material use such as 3D printing, etc.

Material efficiency

Providing services where customers are charged only when they use it

Payment per use

Providing products through sharing between consumers, customers, etc.

Peer to peer sharing

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of own-brand products

Own brand second-hand sale

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Allowing customers to alter and modify certain features of the product

Customisation

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Designing products so they are able to be easily repaired

Design for repair

Developing or utilising online marketplaces to enable the peer-to-peer exchange of products and services

Peer-to-peer online marketplaces

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer / consumer collaboration

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

Providing services through a subscription plan with regular payment schemes

Subscription-based services

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Providing repair services or maintenance services for products or parts

Product maintenance, repair

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use

Recovering and reusing waste heat, gas, etc. for energy

Recovery and reuse of waste energy

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Converting fossil fuel based operations to electric

Electrification

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Selling parts of modular products that can be refilled

Sale of refillable parts

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

Ensure that biological products are properly managed and preserved

Maximise lifetime of biological products

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Designing products to resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life.

Design for physical durability

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to circular economy

Using <a href="https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals" target="_blank">materials that are not toxic or hazardous</a>.

Non-toxic materials and inputs

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within other industries

Open loop downcycling

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

Recover waste energy or generate fuels and energy from waste streams

Energy recovery from waste

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Designing products that can easily breakdown and degrade in the environment

Design for bio-degradability

Providing products through leasing, rental, or pay-per-use models instead of sales

Leasing, rental, pay per use

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency

Selling parts of modular products that can be exchanged or replaced

Sale of exchangeable parts

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Deliver services through business models that ensure maximum value

Service business models

Preserving and conserving biological products such as food, forests, etc.

Preservation, conservation

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use

Providing upgrade programmes or upgrade services for products or parts of products

Product upgrade

Initiatives with disadvantaged communities, minorities, people distanced from the labour market

Give-back programmes

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy

Engaging in discussions with industry stakeholders to share circular economy best practices and push the industry towards greater circularity

Guidance, dialogue with industry stakeholders

Designing products to increase consumer’s emotional attachment and ensure longer use

Design for product attachment, emotional durability

Selling high quality, long-lasting products

Sale of durable, long-lasting goods

Specific programmes or initiatives to help customers become more circular 

Customer programmes

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

Generating energy from waste through processes such as anaerobic digestion, gasification, incineration, etc.

Generating energy from waste

Takeback and return of products from customers after end-of-use

Takeback programmes

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Designing products of multiple parts that can be easily disassembled

Design for disassembly

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within other industries

Open loop collection

Facilitate discussions and meetings between internal team members to identify circular opportunities

Dialogue with internal stakeholders

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution

Processing waste streams into fuels such as biogas, biofuels, pellets, etc.

Processing waste into fuel

Employing artificial algorithms and robotics to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Advanced robotics, artificial intelligence

Putting in place purchasing guidelines for procurement departments and evaluating suppliers on circular economy principles

Circular procurement

Key elements of the circular economy

TEXAID has enabled the recycling of post-consumer textile waste into new textiles. After two years of R&amp;D, TEXAID has developed, a fabric using 50% post-consumer textile waste from used clothing. The fabric is a blend of 50% post-consumer cotton textile waste which TEXAID has collected in their sorting facilities in Germany and Switzerland. The other 50% is made from ocean-bound plastic waste. This is plastic that has a high risk of entering the ocean which has been saved and recycled by Unifi, Inc. The cotton material was shredded by Marchi &amp; Fildi Group, based in Biella Italy, who then spun the recycled cotton and recycled polyester into a new yarn. This yarn was then woven into a fabric by Tessitura Casoni T.F.C. The entirely European supply chain was able to have a strong focus on transparency and traceability. This is a proof of concept that a 100% recycled fabric with 50% post-consumer textile waste is possible, which is an important step towards textile-to-textile recycling happening at scale in the textile industry today.&nbsp;